The present invention relates generally to the field of hardware racks, and more particularly to power distribution units.
A hardware rack is a structure designed to physically hold a plurality of hardware devices such as, but not limited to, server computers and/or other similar computing devices. Hardware racks can be found in data centers for example and can be designed for structural support of the devices they hold, cooling and power efficiency of the devices and/or a neat arrangement of cables and wires associated with the devices. Power distribution units (PDUs) are units that can connect to a power source and can have a plurality of outlets for the distribution of the power to connected devices, such as the previously mentioned hardware devices which may be held in a hardware rack. PDUs can additionally have other I/O ports such as but not limited to, Ethernet ports and USB ports, and can be attached to a hardware rack to provide power and/or network connectivity to any connected devices.
Power supply units (PSUs) are units in computing devices which convert incoming power (e.g., power from a PDU) into a form that can be used by internal components of the computing devices, e.g., incoming power can be converted from AC to DC, etc. Some computing devices have a plurality of PSUs for a redundant supply of power and each of a plurality of PSUs in a computing device can in some cases be connected to separate PDUs.